Revision process of and expert committee composition for Korean national cancer screening guideline

Cancer screening is one of the most effective methods for cancer control. The national cancer screening program has provided regular cancer screenings for all people at a certain age, regardless of symptoms. This program covers five major cancers: stomach, colorectal, liver, breast, and cervical cancer. Recently, a research project was performed to develop and revise the guidelines for cancer screening, based on the assessment of effectiveness compared to harm and on the evidence from a systematic review of related studies. Target cancers for screening guideline are not only for five major cancers which are included in national cancer screening program, but also for thyroid cancer and lung cancer, because thyroid cancer is rapidly increased recently and lung cancer has the highest mortality rate among cancers. Multidisciplinary expert committees were composed for developing and revising the guidelines for cancer screening. This process of national cancer screening guideline development and revision comprised three steps. First, an expert committee developed key questions for consideration in revision and development of the guidelines. A systematic literature review related to these key questions was performed. In the second step, the effectiveness of the national cancer screening program for five major cancers was analyzed, including analysis of screening rates, early cancer detection rates, and mortality reduction effects. Through this process, a draft of the revised guidelines was created. The draft was open to the public to gather external expert opinions. After review of the expert opinions, the final guidelines for cancer screening were published. In the third step, based on the revised cancer screening guideline, the national cancer screening program will be modified. In this step, cost-effectiveness and feasibility of the revised guideline will be considered.